US Youth Soccer Announces New League Structure

timbuck

timbuck

https://www.usyouthsoccer.org/us-yo...cture---the-us-youth-soccer-national-leagues/
"FRISCO, Texas (April 18, 2018) — US Youth Soccer is pleased to unveil its new US Youth Soccer National Leagues Program for high-level competitive leagues that will kick-off in the 2018-19 soccer season. The US Youth Soccer National Leagues Program will feature a network of Conferences (formerly known as Regional Leagues) that are more geographically focused, under one leadership and management structure, and linked into the highly successful National League and National Championship Series...."

The only thing constant is change.....
Can someone explain why this is necessary?
 
timbuck said:
https://www.usyouthsoccer.org/us-yo...cture---the-us-youth-soccer-national-leagues/
"FRISCO, Texas (April 18, 2018) — US Youth Soccer is pleased to unveil its new US Youth Soccer National Leagues Program for high-level competitive leagues that will kick-off in the 2018-19 soccer season. The US Youth Soccer National Leagues Program will feature a network of Conferences (formerly known as Regional Leagues) that are more geographically focused, under one leadership and management structure, and linked into the highly successful National League and National Championship Series...."

The only thing constant is change.....
Can someone explain why this is necessary?
Click to expand...

No I cannot explain, but I am sure it has something to do with $$$$$$
 
timbuck said:
https://www.usyouthsoccer.org/us-yo...cture---the-us-youth-soccer-national-leagues/
"FRISCO, Texas (April 18, 2018) — US Youth Soccer is pleased to unveil its new US Youth Soccer National Leagues Program for high-level competitive leagues that will kick-off in the 2018-19 soccer season. The US Youth Soccer National Leagues Program will feature a network of Conferences (formerly known as Regional Leagues) that are more geographically focused, under one leadership and management structure, and linked into the highly successful National League and National Championship Series...."

The only thing constant is change.....
Can someone explain why this is necessary?
Click to expand...

Its necessary in order for US Youth Soccer to stay relevant in the eyes of elite clubs and grow in light of the ever changing landscape of youth soccer. Appreciate that US Youth Soccer (National), like US Club (National), AYSO (National), and YES (midwest) are Voting Members of the USSF as Youth Affiliates and the organizations that execute on the USSF's youth soccer initiatives. The mission of these youth affiliates is to grow youth soccer and meet the needs of their direct members. In the case of USYS, its key members are the State Associations. There are 55 member State Associations ... Cal South is the State Association in our region (Region IV - West).

If you accept the mission statement of US Youth Soccer "... foster the physical, mental and emotional growth and development of America's youth through the sport of soccer at all levels of age and competition..." then it naturally follows that USYS and its State Affiliates should serve the needs of the recreational youth and elite youth. To this end, USYS has seen an incursion by the USSF (the DA) on the elite end, and by US Club with its NPL and Boys ECNL. USYS has also watched its ODP program be rendered mostly irrelevant with the USSF Development Academy, so its shifting gears, by reorganizing its National League into a much more structured league with similar rules/play dates, etc., across the 4 regions.

This move/change was requested by the 55 State Associations to provide a better mechanism to retain top level talent in USYS, rather than having those teams/clubs/members leave for U.S. Club, Super-Y, etc.
 
It seems to me that they just renamed CRL and broke it into smaller pieces to reduce travel. If it does reduce travel, that would be a good thing.
 
outside! said:
It seems to me that they just renamed CRL and broke it into smaller pieces to reduce travel. If it does reduce travel, that would be a good thing.
Click to expand...
CRL is a Cal South and Cal North gaming league, this is USYS's national league, which has nothing to do with CRL. That said, its feasible that some Cal South teams would play in both CRL and the National League. Think of this purely something similar to some of US Club soccer's national/regional gaming leagues: ECNL (Girls and Boys), ENPL (Elite National Players League), NPL (National Players League), etc.
 
Seems there is a scramble by all the organizations to get their market share (ie $$$) of the so-called elite youth. (however, if you believe this article http://newsportfuture.com/elite-junior-athletes/ there is no such thing as an elite junior athlete). In the last couple of years we've seen the following:

DA (girls)
DPL/DA II (still makes me chuckle)
ECNL (boys)
DA expansion (boys)
USYS National League
SCDSL Discovery League
Super Y League (California expansion)
Bio Banding tournaments

Am I missing anything?
 
outside! said:
CRL used to be a feeder into National League.
Click to expand...

Not National League, but National Cup. The winners of CRL go directly to the Far West Nationals. As a Region IV member, Cal South gets so many slots and sometimes extras because the other State Associations are weak and don't fully participate (Alaska, for example). Cal South will send the CRL champions AND the Cal South National Cup winners to the The Far West Regionals (Hawaii this year, Boise, next year), where they will compete against Region IV teams, with the winners moving on to the National Championship in Frisco. National League winners go straight to the National Championship as the National League representatives. In sum, there are three paths to the National Championship:
  1. Play in CRL, win your bracket, bypass National Cup and go straight to Regionals.
  2. Play in the Cal South National Cup Tournament, win and go to Regionals (note, CRL teams get a "by" the first round).
  3. Play in the National League, win and bypass all Regional and go straight to the National Championship.
 
Pretend I am an idiot (pretty easy to do) and explain to me exactly what this change means.
There are currently 4 regions.
There are currently 16 teams per age group that play in the "National League" today. And these teams play 7 games over the course of a few weekends. (November and March?).
And to become one of these 16 teams you have to do one of the following:
-Win a Regional Championship (Does this mean State Cup/National Cup?)
-Win or runner up in the previous year National League
-Win a regional league qualifier

Under the new structure - There will be at least 8 new "Conferences" and probably as many as 30?
Does this have any impact on what State Associations do with their season / league games?
This statement sounds like there will be something happening within each regions league/gaming system: "For teams participating in the Conferences (during the 2018-19 soccer season), the long-time linkage with the National Championship Series Regionals and the National League will continue. In addition to the traditional team vs team model of play within each Conference, newly formed club vs club brackets may be offered and would serve as additional pathways to the National League and Regional Championships."

Will State Cup/National Cup be impacted by these changes?
Seems they are pretty excited about the fact that "The Conferences are now under the management umbrella of the highly successful US Youth Soccer National League. League Managers will oversee the day-to-day activities of the Conferences in accordance with National Leagues Policy and the National Leagues Rules and Regulations."
 
At one time the winners of CRL also get invited to join National League the following season. Maybe that has changed.
 
watfly said:
Seems there is a scramble by all the organizations to get their market share (ie $$$) of the so-called elite youth. (however, if you believe this article http://newsportfuture.com/elite-junior-athletes/ there is no such thing as an elite junior athlete). In the last couple of years we've seen the following:

DA (girls)
DPL/DA II (still makes me chuckle)
ECNL (boys)
DA expansion (boys)
USYS National League
SCDSL Discovery League
Super Y League (California expansion)
Bio Banding tournaments

Am I missing anything?
Click to expand...

The new NPL west spring league:
https://www.nplwest.com/

This is on top of the SCNPL that already existed:
https://www.nationalpremierleague.com/

Every year there seems to be more and more leagues but has the competition in those league decreased? We now have fall, spring, summer (super Y) leagues as well as year round or full time leagues.
 
Question - & hopefully not horribly off topic- but what is ODP exactly & how does it fit into this structure/change? My DD is kind of new to anything other than SCDSL & trying to figure out which opportunities to spend time pursuing given long-term goals and possibilities. I have appreciated many forum posters’ advice and insight over the past few months because we usually feel we really have no idea how it all fits together.
 
MWN said:
.....where they will compete against Region IV teams, with the winners moving on to the National Championship in Frisco.....
Click to expand...

Awesome, so the players and their families can dodge the homeless, heroin needles, trash and human feces that are on the streets of Frisco and neighboring cities. It was absolutely disgusting when we were up there a few weeks ago. Hopefully they hold the games at a venue across the bay from the ever growing cesspool that is San Francisco.
 
Surfref said:
Awesome, so the players and their families can dodge the homeless, heroin needles, trash and human feces that are on the streets of Frisco and neighboring cities. It was absolutely disgusting when we were up there a few weeks ago. Hopefully they hold the games at a venue across the bay from the ever growing cesspool that is San Francisco.
Click to expand...
(Frisco as in Frisco, Texas)
 
Surfref said:
I had just heard a story about the crap on the streets of San Francisco (Frisco) and thought you were talking about that area. It is probably a good thing they will be in Texas.
Click to expand...
I agree...I much prefer the humidity laden streets of Frisco, TX than West Sodom and Gomorrah in Northern CA.
 
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